


I'm Tired

by SoaringWings



Series: One-Shots [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Clinging, Comfort, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Insomnia, Nightmares, One Shot, Protectiveness, Reader-Insert, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 20:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7069108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoaringWings/pseuds/SoaringWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean suffers from nightmares. </p>
<p>Who better to comfort her than a solider, a speedster, and a trickster?</p>
<p>Prepare for all the fluff.</p>
<p>Spiritual predecessor to my other one shot, "I'm Busy", with the same trio, but does not have to be read first to understand this work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Tired

**Author's Note:**

> I started this shortly after Age Of Ultron all the way back last year, but I came across it again and decided to finish it. 
> 
> So this interpretation of Bucky is more recovered and stable (and happy) because it was written long before Civil War and we didn't know what he had...done...to Tony's parents and that he was screwed with far more than I could ever have imagined. I think he's still pretty in character, but keep that in mind.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“Why are you up so early? Or should I say late?”

Jean looked over her shoulder at Bucky, standing in the doorway of the tower lounge. All the lights were off, save for the lamp next to her. She turned back to her laptop and continued to type. It illuminated her face, making the dark circles under her eyes all the more prevalent.

“I…couldn’t get to sleep,” she shrugged carelessly. “I wanted to finish these designs, anyway.”

“Jesus,” Bucky groaned, slumping against the threshold. “You look like you have two black eyes. It’s four in the morning. Why are you up so late?”

She huffed in annoyance. “I could ask the same of you.”

“ _I_ couldn’t stay asleep. Completely different,” He shuffled in, flopping down on the couch and grabbing the remote. He flipped the TV on and began scrolling through the list of shows.

“Bucky, I’m trying to _work_. Turn it off!”

“Misery loves company,” He rolled his head over, looking her straight on. Jean glanced to the side, finding it hard to look him in the eye. “The nightmares keep me up too.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” She was still feeling shaky, the nightmare still fresh in her mind. She could see it every time she closed her eyes, replaying over and over. Even with her eyes open, it haunted her, lurking in the edge of her vision where the light didn’t reach.

“Of course you don’t,” He looked back to the television. “What do you want to watch?” His lip twitched at her glare. “Doll, you’re not going to get any _real_ work done. _Quality_ work I mean, on, what? Two, three, hours of sleep?”

Jean glowered at him for a moment longer, just to make a point, really, before shutting her laptop and setting it aside. “I really hate you sometimes, you know.”

He shot her a smug look but didn’t say anything else. He continued to scroll through the channels.

“Wait, stop. This one.”

“ _This_ one?”

“Yes.”

“ _The Princess Bride_?”

“You’ll like it.”

“Why-hey!” He tried to grab back the remote, but she was holding it out of reach.

It was her turn to smirk. “No, really! You’ll like it!”

He sighed dramatically, throwing his head back. “Seriously?”

“I _promise_. You liked Clue, remember? I was right about _that_.”

“You know what? Fine, but I reserve the right to change it the second you nod off.”

“I will _not_.”

“I’d make you bet on it, but it wouldn’t be a fair one, so I won’t.”

Jean rolled her eyes, ignoring him.

The movie was already halfway through, but Bucky didn’t find it hard to figure out what was going on. After only fifteen minutes or so in, Jean began to drift off. It happened gradually, but once her eyelids began to droop and flutter shut, sleep began impossible to fight. Bucky noticed this (her head was tipping forward, bobbing up occasionally to keep herself awake), but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to spook her. He only smirked and focused on the movie. This continued on only for a few minutes more; Jean’s head fell to the side, dozing.

Bucky nearly leapt out of his skin; her head was resting on his metal arm. He glanced down at her and thought to himself, _how can that be comfortable_?

In truth, he had no idea how to handle this. Of course, plenty of girls had fallen asleep on him before, but it had been a _long, long_ time since then. And it was very clear to him that Jean saw him as nothing more than a friend. That only made him more clueless. He looked down once more at her sleeping face and asked himself what could possibly keep her up at night.

He hoped her reasons weren’t anything like his.

He stayed still, letting her sleep.

An hour later and the credits were rolling, but she hadn’t woken. Uncomfortable from staying in one position for so long, he shifted experimentally. She didn’t stir at all. _She’s dead asleep_.

“You’re gonna wake up with a crick in your neck,” he mumbled to himself. He pulled away, and sure enough, her head slid down to the seat cushion with no fuss at all. “Oh hell…”

Bucky stood, then leaned down to snake one arm under her head and the other under her knees. In one easy motion, he lifted her up and carried her to bed.

Jean woke up late that morning, confused. She thought the events of last night was a dream, but she didn’t understand how it could be, since it had been such as nice one. That is, until Bucky kept calling all Tony’s ideas inconceivable.

~~~

It was two a.m. in the morning, and Pietro was hungry.

Which was not unusual. It was actually a very common occurrence.

Sliding out of bed, he made a beeline for the kitchen, stopping to check on Jean along the way. Ever since Bucky had (discreetly) told everyone about her nightmares, the team had made it a policy to check on her if you were wandering past in the middle of the night. Pietro wasn’t sure if she was aware of this or not; her door was always left open a crack, but he hadn’t realized that it had _always_ been left open a crack before. Nor had he thought much about the fact that she slept with her lamp on.

Seeing her, he halted. The covers were thrown off the bed; Jean laid on her side in the center of the bed, twitching and kicking. Her breathing was ragged and fast. In a blue flash, he was hovering over her, gently shaking her.

“Hey! Jean!”

Jean jerked, eyes going wide. She stared up at him in surprise, tears running down her face as she struggled to breathe. “P-Pietro…” She gripped his wrist, tight.

“Shhh…” He bent down and wrapped her up in a hug. Shaking, she put her arms around his back and squeezed. “Its fine, its fine, shhhh….”

His heart sank at seeing his friend like this; if he hadn’t had any experience with comforting Wanda, he would have been completely lost. This was the first time he had seen her having a nightmare.

“I-It was so _vivid_ and…” Choking back a cry, she buried her head deeper into his chest. “I could feel _everything_ …”

“It wasn’t real.” He ran a hand down her back, just the way Wanda liked. His hand brushed the back of her neck, and he could feel that it was sweaty and clammy. “It wasn’t real. It feels like it is but it isn’t.”

She nodded slightly. “Yeah?”

Realizing she wanted him to keep talking, he continued. “Yeah! You know, I think all us, for the most part, get nightmares too.”

“I-Is that right?”

It was kind of awkward, holding her the way he was, but he wasn’t going to stop until she let go. “I don’t know how the others handle them, but Wanda and I usually comfort each other exactly like this.”

“That’s…” Jean smiled a bit; he could feel it as she pressed against him. “Very nice. Do they…get better?”

“Yeah. Eventually.”

Pietro didn’t know how long he held her for; he couldn’t see the clock from where he was sitting. Eventually, her breathing evened out and she was lightly snoozing. But she still had a death grip around his middle, and he was lying against the headboard with her head just under his chin. If he was going to get up, he’d surely wake her.

He looked down at her. She had to be exhausted, if she fell asleep so fast. And he knew she had been working hard, pulling all-nighters that would make Tony Stark impressed to finish designs for new equipment. He sighed a little. The rising and lowering of his chest only made Jean bury closer to his neck. It was late, she was warm, and the bed was soft.

_She is soft too_ , he thought, smiling. Jean wasn’t rough and tough like the others, but she was certainly a no nonsense, business orientated person. It was rare to see the gentle side of her. Pietro decided he’d leave as soon as she relaxed her grip, not wanting to scare her, but also wanting her to sleep. His stomach growled.

It would be a long wait.

~~~

Loki poked his head into the common room early one morning, scowling. He had sensed a disturbance. There, on the couch. A mortal woman was thrashing and whimpering. The mortal woman he liked to converse with on his trips to the tower to make mischief, or when he was bored enough to take interest in the on goings of the team. He swung by so often, Tony jokingly offered him a room, which he gladly took.

He frowned further. This would not do.

No one was around. He could do a good deed without it soiling his reputation.

Edging around the center table, he carefully perched on the edge of the couch near her head. The television played on, the flashing lights annoying him. Jean was shaking now, her mouth forming incoherent words. Loki reached out and placed his fingertips on her temple. The effect was immediate. Her shivering subsided and she relaxed.

It was a simple trick for a sorcerer like himself. It wasn’t a sleep spell, but rather, he had sent waves of tranquility into her mind. Not a powerful spell, but it was enough to calm her. Still asleep, she clumsily reached up and pawed at the hand still on her forehead, before gripping it and pulling it closer to her chest.

Loki’s lip curled a bit and he pulled away. Jean groaned a little in protest, stirring. Loki froze. This mortal could not witness him doing anything resembling kindness. He’d never live it down. Apparently, sleep was a nicer alternative to waking and Jean settled down again, not releasing her death grip on his sleeve.

Loki grimaced. He’d have to wait until she let go. Casting another spell would only rouse her mind further, subsequently waking her. Well, that couldn’t take too long, but honestly, she was asleep, how was she holding on that tight?!

He resigned himself to his fate, precariously sitting on the edge of the couch and fighting off any thoughts of fondness he had for this little creature who clung to him for comfort. The thought of another actually...wanting him…was unfamiliar and made his chest feel…warm. The television blared on, starting up some sort of show about aliens. Idiotic. All of their theories were dead wrong, he was sure. He looked around for the remote.

He found it.

It was on the opposite end of the coffee table.

And out of reach.

He frowned so deep he gave some validity to the idea that if one made a face long enough, one’s face would be stuck that way, forever. The clock below the screen read five o’ clock.

Well. It was fun to debunk ridiculous midgardians ideas anyway.

~~~

A voice growled, low and dangerous.

“Loki…”

He blinked, turning to the source. He’d been napping, he realized, resting his head on his hand. “What?” he said clumsily, not like himself at all.

“What are you doing?!”

This voice was much richer and accented.

Oh. Bucky and Pietro. They were staring him down and appeared to be very, very angry. Something shifted in his lap and he realized why. He peered down to see Jean resting with her head in his lap, content and perfectly oblivious to the world. Still squeezing his arm to her chest. It now tingled uncomfortably as he shifted it.

“I am trapped,” He said pointedly.

Bucky shushed him, seeing her twitch. “You’ll wake her!” He hissed lowly.

“That is no excuse!” Said Pietro, also low. “You do not get to touch her!”

Loki whispered, “I didn’t want to wake her! Mr. Barnes here, was very explicit on what he would do to me if I dared to ever disturb what little sleep Miss. Jean gets. She clamped on and wouldn’t let go!”

“Then how did you get into that position?!”

Jean turned her head and they all stopped moving and talking until it seemed that she wouldn’t awaken.

“Don’t wake her now,” Bucky sighed, head in his palms. “She hasn’t gotten more than a few hours of sleep over the last few days, trying to finish a proposal, and that only makes the nightmares worse. But no, you still don’t get to touch her.”

“She was having a bad dream when I came upon her, early this morning,” Loki explained. “I went to investigate, but she grabbed my arm and simply wouldn’t let go. Another presence must be comforting to her, because she settled down. I moved to a more comfortable positon, but she placed her head on my lap and I was trapped further.”

Bucky considered this. The demigod would never usually subject himself to displays of affection of any sort, but he knew he had a soft spot for Jean that was bigger than he’d care to admit and it was plausible that he would allow… this. And it was clear that he didn’t relish the situation he was in, so there couldn’t be an ulterior motive.

Pietro rocked back on his heels. “She does… tend to cling.”

“Like an octopus.”

“Or a Fomalhauti.”

“Fom- what?”

Loki raised a brow at the blond. “Do you really want to know?”

“Ughh…” Jean battled her eyes sleepily, adjusting her head to get more comfortable. Whatever she was on certainly did not feel like a pillow. In fact, it felt like…“Huh-gah!”

She shot up, head whipping around in horror when she realized she had been sleeping on Loki’s legs. “What...”

“It was involuntary,” Loki declared. “I did not have a choice.”

“…what?”

“Doll,” Bucky began, grinning a little. “When you hang on, you hang on tight.”

Pietro murmured something about waking up, half strangled by her.

“You...” Loki sniffed. “Clung to me while having a nightmare. I did not move, as it seemed as though that calmed you.”

That was unnerving. “I’m… sorry? Sorry. Um… Thanks?”

“It is quite alright. Such things cannot be helped.”

“O-okay?” She was really confused, her mind still muddled by the pleasant dream she’d been having.

“Crap,” her eyes widened suddenly. “Crap, crap, crap, crap-” She flung the blanket off her legs and sprung up. “I have a board meeting.”

Pietro was quizzical. “I thought that was in two days.”

“I have to make sure the 3D printer made all the parts right for my model.”

“Why the rush, then?” Loki mused.

“Yeah,” Said Bucky. “Why do you need two days?”

“I make detailed models.”

And like that, she was off, plunging herself into her work as soon as she was able to chug down a cup of coffee. The three of them watched her mad scramble with amusement, each glad they could chase the nightmares away, so that she might be this way all the time.

Happy.


End file.
